IN SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE

The 23-Day War on Gaza

In the recent savage attacks on Gaza, more than 1,300 have died and 5,000 wounded. Of the dead, more than 300 are women and children. The entire Gaza infrastructure, including schools, colleges, hospitals, water supply, have been reduced to rubble. More than 26,000 homes have been demolished in the indiscriminate bombing and shelling of Gaza. In Gaza today, there is no electricity, no drinking water; hospitals are overflowing with the wounded; medicines and food has run out.

The 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza were already on the brink of starvation due to the 18 month long siege. The siege still continues, with a complete blockade of all supplies. This is nothing short of genocide of the Palestinian people. Gaza today faces a total humanitarian catastrophe.
Israel is marking the end of its 60th year of existence the same way it established itself – perpetrating massacres against the Palestinian people. The US, the European Union and other countries have been in league with Israel in its repeated invasions of Gaza and the continued occupation of Palestinian lands. The Indian government, while giving lip service to the Palestinian cause, is the biggest buyer of Israeli arms and is helping subsidise the Israeli armed forces.

For Israel, its every act of violence is “self defence”. It is always the “victim”, never the aggressor. It only “retaliates”, never “attacks”. That is why in its books, it is entirely justified in killing thousands of Palestinians for the 20 Israeli deaths that have taken place in the last 10 years from Al Qassem rockets. John Berger, the distinguished writer and art critic, termed this for what it is – the twisted logic of racism. “Today, in face of the Israeli attacks on Gaza, the essential calculation, which was always covertly there, behind this conflict, has been blatantly revealed.  The death of one Israeli victim justifies the killing of a hundred Palestinians.  One Israeli life is worth a hundred Palestinian lives. This is what the Israeli State and the world media more or less -- with marginal questioning -- mindlessly repeat.  And this claim, which has accompanied and justified the longest Occupation of foreign territories in 20th C. European history, is viscerally racist.”

Its Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni tells the world that unlike Hamas, who target civilians, Israel only targets Hamas. Note not combatants but all Hamas, even teachers and doctors are targets. The massacre of the civilians, she claims, is what happens in spite of Israel’s efforts.
The reality stands exposed for all to see. Israel used white phosphorus shells against civilian targets including the main UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) compound in Gaza. Use of such weapons against personnel is banned by the Geneva Conventions and is only allowed for creating smoke screens. White phosphorus fires cannot be put out and causes horrific burns. Israel has also used other new weapons such as Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME), which literally tear away the flesh from the bones and used shells containing metal darts – called flechettes. These shells spray 5,000 such darts over a wide area, causing large-scale civilian casualties.

Israel of course denied the use of white phosphorus weapons initially. It was only after the UN released footage of the use of such weapons on one of the UN schools that they now admit that such weapons were used.

The Israeli forces did not stop with just using new and old illegal weapons. They also deliberately targeted ambulances, medical personnel, hospitals and schools. The UNRWA buildings and compounds were deliberately targeted. Dr. Sami Mushasa media director for United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) stated publicly that the UN facilities were directly targeted by the Israeli army during the 23-day standoff at Gaza. His agency, he said, “was targeted and a scores settlement was made by Israel to disrupt our work in Gaza and Palestine”.  Al Jazeera reported that a total of 53 installations used by the United Nations Relief and Works agency were damaged or destroyed during Israel's Gaza campaign including 37 schools - six of which are being used as emergency shelters - six health centres, and two warehouses.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights documented the attacks against medical personnel working in the Gaza Strip, in clear violation of the Geneva Convention. Since the launch of their military offensive against the population of the Gaza, Israeli forces had killed thirteen Palestinian medical personnel, and wounded dozens of others, whilst they were attempting to evacuate and transfer the dead and injured. A number of ambulances have also been targeted. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) were also attacked and PRCS medical personnel prevented from accessing the dead and injured throughout the Israeli offensive. A number of people subsequently died because help did not reach them in time.

An unnamed soldier told Haaretz, the leading Israeli newspaper of how the Gaza war was fought and why the civilian casualties in Gaza were so high. Their standard tactic was to approach a “suspicious house” by first firing a missile in it, then taking out its sidewall by using a bulldozer and then entering it. This way, they minimise their losses, while killing a large number of innocent civilians.

Two incidents stand out even in this litany of butchery. The first incident caused even the International Red Cross, which normally stays out of controversy, to come out openly accusing the Israeli Army of a war crime. In the Zaytun neighbourhood of Gaza City, Red Crescent had been requesting permission to enter and attend to the wounded from 3rd January, when Israeli forces attacked this neighbourhood. Israeli forces allowed them to enter only on the 7th of January. They found 4 emaciated children clinging to the dead bodies of their mothers. Not only did the Israeli forces not permit the Red Cross/Red Crescent to enter for four days, they provided no help to the injured or the children in spite of being 80 to 100 metres of these houses.

"This is a shocking incident," said Pierre Wettach, the ICRC's Head of Delegation for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In its Press Statement dated 8th January, ICRS stated, “The ICRC believes that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded. It considers the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable.”

The second incident is the Israeli shelling of the Al-Fakhoura UN School in the Jabalya refugee camp, which killed 40 and wounded 55.  Hundreds of Palestinians had taken refuge in the school, hoping that the UN flying over it would protect them from the Israeli attacks. The UN had even given the Israeli army the co-ordinates of the building to the Israeli forces. All this did not help. To justify the shelling, the Israeli propaganda machine first released a video showing that rockets were being launched from the school building. The only problem with the video was that it was taken in 2007 and that too when the school was empty. The next argument advanced was that Hamas were firing mortar shells from inside the school, a claim that the UN has angrily rejected.

There is now evidence emerging that Israeli Armed Forces were incited by their religious functionaries to commit war crimes. The Chief Military Rabbi, Brigadier General Avi Ronzki, gave soldiers fighting in Gaza pamphlets urging them to show no mercy to the population of Gaza. The pamphlet said, “When you show mercy to a cruel enemy you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers. These are not games at the amusement park where sportsmanship teaches one to make concessions. This is a war on murderers." These and other leaflets distributed to the Israeli Forces not only made racist comments on Palestinians but also denied their right to their land.

Public statements by Israeli military planners makes clear that there was a well thought out decision to go after Gaza's civilian infrastructure - and with it, civilians.

Well before the current offensive, in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth in October, Major-General Gadi Eisenkot of the Israeli Army stated that:

"We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective these [the villages] are military bases."

"This isn't a suggestion. This is a plan that has already been authorised."

Mark LeVine, a professor of Middle East history at the University of California, states in a recent article:

“Causing "immense damage and destruction" and considering entire villages "military bases" is absolutely prohibited under international law.  Eisenkot's description of this planning in light of what is now unfolding in Gaza is a clear admission of conspiracy and intent to commit war crimes. [It] renders any argument by Israel that it has tried to protect civilians and is not engaging in disproportionate force unbelievable.”

Israel argues and the international media mindlessly parrots that it is the Hamas who broke the ceasefire in December by firing rockets into Israel. According to this view, this led to the current round of bloodletting. They ignore that even in this limited account of the Gaza conflict, it is Israel which broke the ceasefire first. On November 4, 2008, they conducted targeted assassinations in Gaza killing six Hamas. It is only then that the Hamas broke the ceasefire.

During the six month’s of the ceasefire, the rocket fire from Gaza had fallen off dramatically, with only a few sporadic rockets being fired. Israel however, refused to lift the blockade of Gaza, one of the central elements of the agreement which had led to the six month’s old ceasefire brokered by Egypt. All this confirms that Israel had no intention of continuing the ceasefire and wanted another round of military action in Gaza.

But even this is only a very partial picture. The real story of Gaza is that the Gaza population has been denied any semblance of a functioning economy by Israel. For the last 18 months, they have faced a complete economic blockade. At times, this blockade has been ratcheted up to deny even basic humanitarian supplies such as medicines, fuel and food. All routes in and out of Gaza – land and sea -- are controlled by Israel. Ships are not allowed into Gaza port. It is this siege of Gaza and converting it to a vast prison camp for its population that lies at the centre of the current conflict in Gaza.

The Prison Camp Called Gaza

The supreme irony of the Israeli demand that rockets from Gaza should not fall on its towns such as Askelon is that the true owners of these lands are now refugees in Gaza. Askelon (Askalaan in Arabic) was originally an Arabic neighbourhood, from which they were driven out and herded into refugee camps in Gaza.

Occupied by Israel after the 1967 War, Gaza has been a prison for 1.5 million Palestinians for long. It is an area barely 40 KM long and 10 KM wide (365 KMs in area) making it one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

The problem with the occupation of Gaza for Israel was that it was too densely populated to “cleanse” and did not have enough resources to tempt Jewish settlers. They were stuck with an occupation, which was increasingly becoming costly. The so-called withdrawal from Gaza was the new occupation plan for Gaza, in which Israel would exercise effective control over Gaza but would have none of the responsibilities for its population.

Israel created a propaganda blitz about how they were peacefully handing over control to Palestinians in Gaza and had pulled out their settlers. A series of sniper towers, barbed wire fences soon came up, fully ringing Gaza. From these sniper towers, Israeli military completely controls all Palestinian movements in and out of Gaza. The Israeli Government has not allowed a seaport to be built in Gaza. They also control the airspace.

All goods in and out of Gaza have to pass through six Israeli check posts.  Even the taxes paid on these goods are collected by Israel. After the so-called “disengagement”, Israel destroyed the economy of Gaza. Fully 90% of its industry was forced to close down, as it could neither import what it required nor export its products. Unemployment in Gaza runs to more than 60%, and fully 80% are now fully dependent on food aid. Gaza under disengagement continues to be a hermetically sealed prison, with Israeli Army as the prison guards.

In 2006, Israel targeted Gaza with sanctions to punish its people for having elected the Hamas. In July 2006, it launched its first attack on Gaza after the so-called “disengagement”. It was code-named as “Operation Summer Rain”. Prior to the attack, they had been shelling Gaza continuously for a month, leading to 30 civilians being killed including one family of seven. When the resistance in Gaza attacked an Israeli outpost killing two soldiers and capturing another, this became the trigger for an all out assault. Bombs and missiles were rained on Gaza. Hundreds were killed, thousands wounded, with children a major part of the casualties. Power plants and bridges were blown up. Infrastructure of Gaza was reduced to rubble. Israel also abducted 60 leading Hamas representatives in the Palestinian Authority, including 20 ministers and Members of Parliament.

Subsequently, from September 2007, it declared Gaza as enemy territory and imposed complete blockade on Gaza. The US fully backed the Israeli regime in its attempts to starve the people of Gaza; the European Union played along while making only an occasional disapproving noise.

The blockade did not turn out quite as Israelis had planned. Gaza and Egypt share a small, common border in Rafa. Egypt has agreed that Israel will exercise effective control over Rafa crossing, even though it is under Egypt’s physical control.  The Palestinians first blew up the wall in Rafa, and once Egypt managed to seal the crossing again, built an extensive tunnel system through which they could break the Israeli blockade.

One of the targets of the latest attack on Gaza has been the system of tunnels, using which the Palestinians have beaten the Israeli blockade. One of the aims of the Israeli regime is to seal Gaza completely so that they can starve the Palestinians in Gaza to submission. That this is collective punishment of an occupied territory and a Crime against Humanity, as defined in International Law, does not bother Israel.

Palestine and its History

Israel’s violence against Palestinians is documented throughout its short and brutal history. It starts from the “ethnic cleansing” of the Palestinians from their homeland in 1948 through massacres such as Deir Yassein. It continued throughout its occupation of the West Bank and its repeated invasions of Lebanon.

Israel and its friends in the West portray the struggle of the Palestinian people for their homeland as one of conflict between Israel and the Arabs. The reality is that Zionist project is not only of building a Jewish Israel but also to completely liquidate the Palestinian nation. Or, if the Palestinian nation survives, its people should live as prisoners in splintered enclaves, cut-off from each other by barbed wire fences and concrete walls and continuously under the guns of Israel’s Army. Israel’s hope is that living in such prison conditions will lead to an exodus of Palestinians from Palestine, leaving the Jewish population with the land.

In the aftermath of Nazi Germany’s genocide, a UN General Assembly Resolution in 1947 November, proposed two states in the Palestine: a Jewish state holding 55 % of the area, and the other a Palestinian state. Jerusalem would be a separate entity under the United Nations.  Before this was legally formalised either in a Security Council resolution or through negotiations with Palestinians who were the overwhelming majority in Palestine, the British withdrew from its mandate. On May 15th, 1948 the Jewish side unilaterally declared an independent Jewish state, triggering the 1st Arab Israeli War. The Arab states entered the war opposing the formation of a Jewish state on Palestinian land without the consent of the Palestinians.

Soon after the November 1947 UN Resolution, violence broke out in Palestine. The Jewish side knew that they were a minority in even their part of Palestine. The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that started was aimed to change the demographic composition of what would become Israel. 800,000-900,000 or 85% of the Palestinian people were forced out of their homes. This is what Palestinians remember as the Nakba or the catastrophe. Most of the population who left their homes in 1948, thought that they would come back after a few weeks. They were never allowed to return and became refugees in their own lands.

After the War, Israel emerged with 78% of the territory of Palestine. A Jewish population of barely 30% now controlled three fourth of Palestine. The West Bank became a part of Jordan and Gaza to the south came under Egypt. The Palestinian majority became either second-class citizens in Israel or refugees, some in their own lands in the West Bank and in Gaza.

Israel and Arab states have fought three wars after 1948. This is apart from Israel’s repeated invasion of Lebanon. One was in 1956 when Israel allied with France and UK to attack Egypt after Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal. Another was the Six day War in 1967 and the third was in 1973.

After the 1967 War, Israel occupied all of West Bank and Gaza. For a full 40 years, Israel has refused to vacate its 1967 occupation in spite of numerous United Nations Resolutions. It has created and maintained an occupation regime more brutal than anything the world has seen. The Palestinian population is split into numerous small enclaves, ringed in by barbed wire fences and high walls, and broken up “settler-only roads.”

Any movement in and out of these enclaves means going through one of the 400 checkpoints that are controlled by Israeli Occupation forces. The Palestinians need to cross these check-points to go to schools, their fields, to reach markets, to find work in towns, or to go to hospitals. Every day, the Palestinians are searched, humiliated and made to wait at the “gates”. These checkpoints open only for a few minutes, two or three times a day. When they are open. If the students are even 10 minutes late, they have to miss their entire day of school or college. Pregnant women needing to go to hospitals have given birth, waiting in the long queues that form at the gates.

More than 400,000 Jewish settlers now live in the occupied West Bank, in violation of the Geneva Conventions that prohibit the occupying power settling people in occupied land. These settlers have taken over the best lands, built spacious settlements and taken control of the major sources of water. Comfortable, “settler only” roads, without any gates or checkpoints, link all the settlements, cutting the Palestinian territories and splitting them up even further.

These daily identity checks, body searches and verbal abuse under occupation exploded in late 1987 as the Intifada. It was, at first, a spontaneous resistance of the Palestinian youth. It began in Gaza and spread soon after to the all the occupied areas. Intifada started with school children throwing stones at the Israeli Occupation Army, then grew to a popular resistance involving all sections of the people and political forces.

It held the Israeli Occupation Army at bay for three years. In locality after locality, people came on to the streets and protested: opposing the tanks and guns of the occupying Army with bare hands.

It was an unequal battle. But it brought into focus the brutality of Israeli occupation. No amount of white washing by Israel or its patrons, the US and its allies could hide the reality of the war that Israel was waging on the Palestinian population. Finally, this led to negotiations on the occupation and the Oslo accords. The Oslo accord was an attempt by Yasser Arafat, the undisputed leader of the Palestinian resistance to resolve Israeli occupation peacefully. The promise of Oslo was:

• A Palestinian Authority which would later evolve to a full fledged Palestinian state

• Gradual handing over the West Bank to this authority

• The dismantling of Jewish settlements on the West bank, status of Jerusalem and the right to return of refugees would be part of future negotiations

Instead, the reality has been continued occupation, and no Palestinian state.

The second Intifada sprang from the failure of the peace process. With no peace in sight and no possibility of a Palestinian state, the Palestinians resistance has grown. While the Palestinian resistance continues and increasingly, Israel’s occupation is coming under widespread criticism, Israel has now prepared what it considers as its final solution for the Palestinian people. This is the so-called “Disengagement Plan” in which it has withdrawn from Gaza Strip, will remove some of the smaller settlements in the West Bank and consolidate the rest, and lock-in the Palestinians in unviable Bantustans.

A 600-kilometre Wall that cuts across most of the West Bank Wall creating three major Palestinian enclaves is the centrepiece in this disengagement plan. The International Court of Justice already has pronounced this Wall illegal. This is Israel’s plan for the West Bank: a Palestine carved in the image of Apartheid South Africa’s Bantustans, with the Wall encircling 54% of the West Bank leaving the other 46% under illegal Israeli occupation. The Palestinians would finally have a meagre 12.5% of the land area of original Palestine. The Israeli Army would control all the access in and out of these Bantustans.

One of the unintended consequences of the last round of attacks on Gaza by Israel is to underscore yet again the need for a united Palestinian response to Israel and its occupation of West Bank and Gaza. The split in the resistance between Fatah and Hamas has unfortunately only helped Israel in its plan of conceding nothing to the Palestinians except a West Bank broken up into small Bantustans and Gaza as an open-air prison.

Zionist Goals

At the heart of the Palestine conflict is the occupation of Palestine and not Israel’s security, as Israel claims.

Israel will not allow a genuine Palestinian state to emerge. It will continue to fragment West Bank, cutting it into small enclaves and controlled by the Israeli armed forces. It will not remove its settlement from West Bank. Recently, the Election Commission of Israel has barred all parties in participating in elections that are lead by Arabs. The Supreme Court of Israel has accepted numerous restrictions on the Arab population within Israeli borders and denied even basic human rights to occupied territories.

The message that Israel is delivering in Gaza is simple: the Palestinian and Arab will to resist must be broken by brute force. They should be starved, bombed and terrorized until they accept that rebelling is futile, and accepting prison life is their only hope for staying alive. This is the “disengagement” that Israel is enforcing as its vision of the “Peace” with support and endorsement from the United States.  This is what the Annapolis Conference was all about, legitimising Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank with some concessions in terms of local authority being given to the Palestinian Authority. 

The Zionist goals are not surprising. The desire to drive out Palestinians – from Nakba to what they are doing today – is clear. But what explains the silence and the complicity of Governments, particularly those who are the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions? Why have the flagrant violation of Geneva conventions – the change of demographic composition, the collective punishment, and the reprisals against ordinary Palestinians for alleged crimes of terrorists -- not brought any meaningful international response? Why are the Permanent Members of the Security Council inactive when Security Council resolution after resolution has been openly flouted by Israel?

The US has been the key patron of Israel in flouting all international law and the occupation of Palestine. Since 1948, it has provided $101 billion as aid to Israel, more than half of which has been given as military hardware. For the next 10 years, it has committed another $30 billion, largely as military aid. When the people of Gaza were bombed, it was US-supplied F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters with American made missiles and bombs that were used. The Israeli economy would collapse overnight if the US aid dries up – Israeli has been propped up in West Asia by the US in order to control this oil-rich region. The US has time and again used its veto in the Security Council to protect Israel from the consequences of its genocidal policies. In Lebanon in 2006 and again in the latest Gaza massacres, the US purposely delayed UN resolutions calling for ceasefire so as to give Israel more time. The US has transferred nuclear weapons illegally to Israel, which has an arsenal of 300 such weapons. If Israel is today a rogue state, it is the protection that the US provides that allows it to continue as one.

Shameful Stand of GOI

While the complicity of the US and EU is easy to understand, what explains the Indian Government’s stand on Israel? We have already seen the unseemly spectacle of Mossad and the Israeli Army personnel visiting Kashmir. Today, we have a booming arms trade with Israel, which sustains its armaments industry and therefore the Israeli defence forces in its occupation. We are jointly developing drones and other missiles with Israel, which routinely used in Palestine for targeted assassinations. We are launching satellites for Israel, used in its conflict in Gaza and in spying over Iran.

The Government of India has developed strong military ties with the Zionist State.. Arms sales form the backbone of the Israeli economy. There are nearly 150 defence firms in Israel, with combined revenues estimated at US $3.5 billion. The three largest arms manufacturing groups in Israel are the government-owned Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), Israel Military Industries (IMI) and the Rafael Arms Development Authority, all of which produce a wide range of conventional arms and advanced defence electronics. In addition, there are privately owned weapons manufacturing companies like Elbit Systems and the Tadiran Group. The Israeli arms industry employs close to 60,000 people. Israel's defence exports are coordinated and regulated through SIBAT -- the Foreign Defence Assistance and Defence Export Organization -- which is run by the Ministry of Defence. SIBAT's tasks include licensing all defence exports, as well as marketing products developed for the Israel Defence Force (IDF), that is the Israeli military, from electronic components to missile boats and tanks.

Since the end of the cold war, Israel has been plagued by shrinkage in arms trade/export forcing it to become extremely proactive in seeking clients to sustain the industry. The establishment of Indo-Israel diplomatic relations in 1992 came as an undisguised blessing for the Israeli political-military-industrial complex, as it re-energized the overall performance of the Israel’s defence industry. India, with a record $1.6 billion procurement of arms, had boosted Israel’s defence industries to record an all-time sales figure of $ 4.4 billion in 2006.  The Israelis’ defence trade with India has been one of the main reasons for Israel’s emergence as one of the top five exporters of defence equipment in the world. The Indian arms purchases include:

• Barak Naval anti-missile defence system

• Phalcon advanced airborne early warning systems

• Green Pine early-warning and fire-control radars

• Upgradation of 180 130 mm M-46 field guns by Israeli firm Soltam

• Super-Dvora Mk II fast attack craft

• Heron Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

• Star Night Technologies Night Vision Goggles

• Spider quick-reaction surface to air missile (55 km range) $2.5 billion joint collaboration project

A $480 million, five-year contract was concluded in early 2006 between the Indian Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO) and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for missile development. India and Israel have expanded their already considerable missile development cooperation to cover both air and land based missile systems. This new deal with IAI is worth $2.5 billion. The deal, apart from missile systems, also includes radar systems made by IAI's subsidiary, Elta Systems Ltd, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and possibly satellites too.

IAI had last year launched its TechSAR all-weather, high-resolution radar satellite using an Indian launcher in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Israel has made no secret of the fact that the prime function of TechSAR is to spy on Iran, a country with which India has friendly relations. It is also known that this was the first in a series of 5 such satellites that India has agreed to launch for Israel.

A coalition of US-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC), America-Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) and American Jewish Committee (AJC) has vehemently lobbied to gain the Bush administration's approval for Israel to sell four Phalcon early warning radar planes to India worth US $1 billion. After Pokhran II, the US had imposed sanctions on India and opposed any form of arms trade in the subcontinent. Delegations of the American pro-Israeli Jewish lobby have been visiting India frequently since 1995. Two years ago, it was this very lobby that took a group of Indian-American leaders to visit Israel to boost the arms trade and diplomatic relations.  India has become one of Israel's largest business partners.  Israel is currently India's second largest weapons supplier after Russia and is expected to take over the first place from Russia soon.

Recently the head of SIBAT, Maj. Gen. Yossi Ben-Hanan, in his interview with the Jerusalem Post proclaimed "India was Israel’s biggest customer, with purchases reaching $1.5 billion”. He also pointed out that Israel’s single largest sale to a foreign country involved India, the Barak Naval anti-missile defence system worth $450 million. Israeli defence exports to India totalled US $ 2.76 billion from the year 2002 through 2005. The year 2006 registered a record purchase of defence equipment worth $1.6 billion by India from Israel. In the last five years India had purchased arms worth nearly $5 billion from Israel and has been its largest client for military hardware.

After September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre, Israel has been selling defence supplies to India, especially in the garb and under the rhetoric of counter-terrorist operations. India is now aiming to purchase Israeli Arrow-II anti-ballistic missile defence system, for which permission from the US, which has co-developed the system, is awaited. India has already acquired two Green Pine early-warning and fire-control radars which can detect and track hostile missiles from 500 km away. During the NDA regime, India entered into a contract with the Israeli firm Soltam to upgrade 180 M-46 130-mm field guns to 155 mm/39 calibre and 155 mm/45 calibre at a cost of about $250,000 each. Moreover, Soltam also agreed to provide India's Ordnance Factory Board kits to retrofit another 220-250 M-46 guns to equip some 25 artillery regiments. The Navy has also purchased three Super-Dvora Mk II fast attack craft for around $4.30 million. In 2001, during the Kargil war, India acquired 40,000 rounds of 155 mm ammunition from Israel for around $1200 apiece and 30,000 rounds of 160mm mortars for around $400 apiece. Israeli firms have also revamped INS Viraat's electronic control systems though the cost has not yet been disclosed.

The Indian government entered into a $220 million deal with Israel in 2006 for the supply of 50 Herons drones to the Indian Army. Israel claims that these unmanned aerial vehicles can fly at an altitude of 30,000 feet and are equipped with surveillance technology and an automatic landing and take-off system.

In 2004, India signed a $1.1billion agreement for the acquisition of four Phalcon advanced airborne early warning systems from Israel to India. The Israeli Military Industries also announced that it had secured a $130 million lucrative defence contract from India in the same year. Even the procurement of 126 multi-role combat aircraft for IAF in a deal estimated to be worth over $6.5 billion will have an Israeli imprint.

It is understood from Indian Defense sources that whichever fighter --- F-16, F/A-18, Rafale, Typhoon or MIG-35 --- is selected, the aircraft will be fitted with Israeli avionics.

At the same time, high-level military visits and Joint Working Groups of both countries are continuing and operating at great pace. In 2006, two major military delegations   headed by the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi, and the vice-chief of the Navy, Vice-Admiral Venkat Bharathan, and in 2005 Lieutenant-General Shantonu Choudhary, and Vice Admiral Arun Prakash visited Israel, apart from routine visits of Indian military officers and commandos for training under Israeli Defence Force (IDF). The Army Chief General J.J.Singh visited Israel for 10 days, the first by a serving army chief, to review military projects like the upgradation of 300 T-72 MI tanks, BMP2 infantry combat vehicles and the induction of UAVs. Apart from this, in 2006, two Indian warships docked in the Israeli port of Haifa on a so-called goodwill visit to enhance diplomatic relations. Indian Navy chief, Adm. Suresh Mehta, concluded a five-day visit to Israel in January 2008. All three serving chiefs have now visited Israel in the last 2 years.

The chief of staff of the Israeli ground forces command, Brig-General A Mizrahi, was in India in February last year for sharing of military intelligence, equipment, conducting joint training and exercises and “interoperability”. Israeli deputy chief of general staff, Major General Moshe Kaplinsky, visited J&K, including the 16 Corps headquarters in Nagrota for presumably helping India with “counter-insurgency” operations. He and his delegation also held talks with senior military representatives and Defence Ministry officials on each other’s "security perspectives".
An Indo-Israeli Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism has been set up and has held a number of meetings. The Israeli Defence Ministry Chief, Brig Gen (retd.) Pinchas Buchris visited India in January, 2008 and held talks with National Security Advisor M.K.Narayanan, Defence Secretary Vijay Singh, Army Chief Gen Deepak Kapoor, Naval Chief Admiral Suresh Mehta and Air Force Chief Fali Homi Major. These talks included setting up a mechanism for intelligence sharing.

There is already an on-going relationship between Israeli Intelligence agencies and their Indian counterparts. It is well known that Mossad routinely infiltrates even “friendly” intelligence agencies and uses them to plant information, which helps Israel. Such activities could damage India's relationship with countries such as Iran and Syria, with whom India has friendly relations but Israel does not.

In Solidarity with Palestine: Snap Military and Security Ties

 The Indian National Movement had always supported the Palestinian cause and opposed the Zionist appropriation of Palestine. Mahatma Gandhi, in his well-known “Harijan” editorial in 1938, had made clear his opposition to Zionism and stated that Palestine belongs to the Palestinians. This continued to be the position of successive Governments after independence and of all sections of the Indian people. India was among the first non-Arab nations to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in 1974 and the first non-Arab country to recognize Palestine as an independent state in 1988. India has also steadfastly and from the outset, opposed the continued illegal occupation by Israel of West Bank and Gaza.

Starting with the NDA Government, the policy of support to the Palestinian people has shifted to one of building a strategic tie-up with Israel. This has continued under the UPA Government as well. India should recognise that West Asian peace is vital to the South Asian region as well and Palestine is the focus of the West Asian conflict. The consequences of global inaction to this continued illegitimate occupation are severe for all. India therefore must not wait for the so-called global leaders but take an initiative to address the Palestinian issue. It must emphasise that security and peace can only achieved by putting an end to the Israeli occupation, evacuation of all Israeli settlements and establishing an independent Palestinian state. Only a negotiated peace on these lines can lead to a resolution of this problem and not the continuing spiral of violence that Israel is imposing on Gaza and the occupied territories.

The Government of India has to take an initiative to mobilise international pressure to end the occupation of Palestine and allow Palestinians a sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital. India must break all military and security ties with Israel. It is only through such actions it can show solidarity with Palestinians. Giving lip service to the Palestinian cause while getting into a strategic alliance with the US and Israel is neither moral nor in India’s national interest.

The CPI(M) has always cherished the strong ties it has with the Palestinian movement for a sovereign nation. It has been in the forefront of expression of solidarity with the people of Palestine. Today the solidarity movement with Palestine must be expressed through a demand for the Government of India to break its military and security ties with Israel. We appeal to the people of India to join us in this demand and build a strong movement to force the Government to reverse its shameful policy towards Israel.
February 03, 2009